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October 15, 1962. THE ANALYSIS OF A TRANSVESTITE BOY. A CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENESIS AND DYNAMICS OF TRANSVESTISM. Melitta Sperling, M.D.
The psychoanalytic treatment of transvestite children and their mothers provides insight into their fantasy life and into the genesis and persistence of their high degree of bisexuality. The mothers of these boys are orally fixated personalities with strong bisexual orientation, who encourage bisexuality in their children. The dominant fantasy of these children, typical of transvestites, is to be 'half boy and half girl'. Oral greed and envy of the woman (mother) with a wish for breasts, vagina, hair, babies, and everything a girl has are outstanding traits. Castration anxiety here derives its intensity and specific quality from unresolved earlier anxieties, especially separation anxiety and preoedipal conflicts. The urgency and impulsivity which characterizes oral personalities are also apparent in these patients.
The patient reported developed overt transvestite behavior at the age of three. He had the fantasy, 'All children are born girls', and would say, 'I, too, was born a girl'. Growing breasts and long hair played an important part in his dreams and fantasies of magical transformation. By equating the (missing) penis with the (as yet missing but later developing) breasts, he could retain the